Visualisation for Humanities Research | DHO Summer School 2010

Data Visualisation for the Humanities

Paolo Battino (Digital Humanities Observatory) and Shawn Day (Digital Humanities Observatory)

Agenda
Preparation
Resources
Bibliography

Humanities scholarship increasingly relies on the analysis and presentation of large amounts of data. Although this provides a new and promising scope for research, the magnitude of the information challenges human ability to appreciate the patterns and the application of machine technologies is essential. Manipulation of large datasets and leveraging disparate data collections to enable discovery can be empowered through the selection and application of appropriate visualisation maethods. Additionally, visualisation strategies can enable not simply the analysis of large amounts of data, but the effective presentation of research findings.

This course will provide an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and technology for effective visualisation of data for digital humanities research. This strand will introduce e-humanities scholars to the value of data visualisation. It will present a review of the existing standards and tools which are available to assist with data design and publication for e-humanities research and analysis. At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be familiar with the tools and methods available to consider for data collection and short term storage; manipulation and presentation of data; and to conduct analysis of data from a humanities perspective.

This workshop strand delivered presentations on the following topics:

001 Welcome
002 Project Slam
003 Critiquing Visualisations [Presentation][Examples]
004 Types of Visualisations1
005 Data Setup in Google
006 The Psychology of Visualisation
007 Visualisation in Google FusionTables
008 The Visualisation Process
010 Visualisation Tools for Analysis
011 Numerical Visualisation
013 Text Visualisation
014 Visualisation Analysis Case Study
016 Visualisation formats
017 Visualisaing Text for Aesthetics
019 Visualisation of Relationships
020 Relationship Visualisation Exercise
021 Visualisation of Meaning
022 Visualisation for Presentation
023 Data Presentation with Exhibit [Document]
024 Choosing the right Visualisation
026 Designing Visualisations that Work
028 Visualising Time
029 Exhibit Exercise with Time
030 Visualising Space
031 Exhibit Exercise with Space
040 Text Analysis Case Study

This course is suitable for all academics and professionals. No previous experience with computer science or visulaisation tools is required.Common computing skills will be assumed, e.g. file manipulation ('open', 'save as', etc.), navigation of web-sites through hyperlinks, etc.

Course Preparation
Please feel free to explore the following articles (not required but will add to appreciation of the course):

We will be conducting a project slam on the first day of the workshop. This will allow us all to gain an appreciation of others interests and project/research background. To facilitate this, please download this project template (http://dho.ie/ss2010/podcasts/ss2010ProjectSlamTemplate.ppt), fill it up for your work and return it to P [dot] Battino [at] dho [dot] ie by 21 June. We will collate the presentations and have them available to you for presentation on the first day of the workshop. The uniform template will allow us to keep your presentations brief and too the point, and also move through the process efficiently.

Please also setup a google account if you do not already have one. You can do this at google.
Please also ensure that your Java Client is up to date on your laptop and you have a standards compliant browser, such as Firefox, Safari or Opera, i.e. please have a browser in addition to Internet Explorer installed if you are on Windows.

Please download: Viszter to your laptop.

Optional:
A dataset of your own that you might like to work with. This might be a digital text (encoded or unencoded), a dataset of numerical values, or others. This is not a requirement as we will be providing data for you to use in various exercises that we will do during the workshop, but if you would like to experiement with a small subset of your own data this is absolutely encouraged.

You will require a laptop for this course, We are arranging for wi-fi access and you will have receive an acount on the first day of the workshop.

Resources

Websites

CFinder
Cytoscape
Data Visualisation: Modern Approaches
DocuBurst
Digital Narrative Google Group
Digital Research Tools Wiki (DiRT)
Earth Point
EasyTimeline
FeatureLens
GapMinder
Google Earth
Google SketchUp! (3D Modelling)
GraphViz
HyperPo 6.0/HyperPo 7.0 Alpha
IPInfoDB (Free IP address geolocation tools)
Many-Eyes
Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization MONK
MusicBox
Open Street Map
Prefuse
SIMILE (Timeline, Exhibit)
Social Networks Visualiser
Sonic Visualiser
Spira Clock (Time as a spiral)
Swivel
TagCrowd TAPoR (non-portal version: here)
Text Analysis Developers Association (Recipes)
TED Conference Site (Hans Rosling)
Text Arc (Textual Visualisation)
Timelines and Visual Histories
Versioning Machine
Visone
Visual Complexity
VisualThesaurus
WordNET
Wordle

Blogs

Gallery of Data Visualisations (Good and Bad)
Information Aesthetics
Perceptual Edge
Pointy-Haired Dilbert
Visual Design & Analysis

Bibliography

Bender-deMoll, S. and McFarland, D. A. The Art and Science of Dynamic Network Visualization. In Journal of Social Structure Volume 7, Number 2 [Link]
Braha, D. and Bar-Yam, Y. From Centrality to Temporary Fame: Dynamic Centrality in Complex Networks. In Complexity 12: 59-36, 2006 [PDF]
Brandes, U., Raab, J. and Wagner, D. Visualizing Social Networks. In Journal of Social Structure Volume 2, Number 4 [Link]
Breiger, R. L. The Analysis of Social Networks in Handbook of Data Analysis, edited by Melissa Hardy and Alan Bryman. London: Sage Publications: 2004. PP. 505–526 [PDF of "Excerpt"s]
Chabris, C.F., & Kosslyn, S.M. Representational correspondence as a basic principle of diagram design In Tergan, S-O., & Keller, T. (Eds.), Knowledge and information visualization: Searching for synergies; Springer: 2005 PP. 36-57 [PDF]
Ebel, H., Davidsen, J., and Bornholdt, S. Dynamics of social networks. In Complexity: 2002 Volume 8, Issue 2 PP. 24-27 [PDF]
Freeman, L. Visualizing Social Networks. In Journal of Social Structure Volume 1, Number 1 [Link]
Few, Stephen. Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. Analytics Press: 2009.
Friendly, Michael. A Brief History of Data Visualisation. In Handbook of Data Visualisation Part II Springer: 2008, PP. 15 - 56. [PDF] (other papers by Prof. Friendly on graphical methods and the history of graphical representation can be found here)
Fry, Ben. Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment. 2007.
Golbeck, J. Various papers on social networking, trust and the Semantic Web.
Hanneman, R. A. and Riddle, M. Introduction to Social Network Methods Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside [Online Version] (other books by Prof. Hanneman including 'Introduction to the Formal Analysis of Social Networks Using Mathematica' are available here)
Huff, Darrell. How to Lie with Statistics. Penguin: 1991
Lawrence, K. F. The Web of Community Trust - Amateur Fiction Online: A Case Study in Community Focused Design for the Semantic Web. PhD thesis, University of Southampton. [Link]
Lynch, Kevin - Mental Maps - Perceptual Forms of the City
McCarty , C. Structure in Personal Networks . In Journal of Social Structure Volume 3, Number 1 [Link]
Mislove, A., Marcon, M., Gummadi, K. P., Druschel, P., and Bhattacharjee, B. Measurement and analysis of online social networks. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM Conference on internet Measurement IMC '07. ACM: 2007 PP. 29-42. [PDF]
Monmonier, Mark S. How to Lie with Maps. Chicago University Press: 1996.
Opsahl, T. and Panzarasa, P., Clustering in Weighted Networks in Social Networks,Volume 31, Issue 2, Elsevier: 2009, PP. 155-163 [ PDF]
Parry, J. Visualization Techniques for Temporal Information [PDF]
Tufte, Edward. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press USA: 2001.
Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information. Graphics Press USA: 1990.